The Canadian Multicultural Education Policy Web: Lessons to Learn, Pitfalls to Avoid

Canada prides itself on being the first country to coin the term "multiculturalism" and on being the first country to adopt a multiculturalism policy. This article examines recent moves in Canadian policy related to multiculturalism and multicultural education that are aimed at changing the direction of the policy away from an emphasis on diversity as a strength of Canada to diversity as a problem that needs to be overcome. We use an analytical approach called the "policy web" (Joshee & Johnson, 2005) to illustrate how the shift from social justice to social cohesion has resulted in a very different understanding of the meaning and possibilities for multiculturalism and multicultural education. We conclude that while there are things to learn from the Canadian example, we caution others to think carefully about some of the new directions.